With the start of each new school year, children and youth around the world flock to their school desks, determined to acquire the education and knowledge that will pave the way for them to build a bright future for themselves and for future generations. Education is the fundamental pillar that contributes to the progress of societies and the development of humanity at various levels. However, in Gaza, Palestine, this basic right seems difficult to achieve due to the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

Since October 7, 2023, for the second year in a row, Gaza’s children and youth have been denied access to education. Education is no longer available even to those over the age of six who are ready to enter school for the first time. Young people have been unable to return to university, and even those studying outside Gaza have been unable to leave its territory.

According to reports from the Government Media Office in Gaza, UNRWA, UNICEF and UNESCO, more than 630,000 students have been deprived of education since the beginning of the war in October 2023. To this day, schools remain closed due to the ongoing Israeli aggression, which has killed more than 10,000 students and injured 15,000 others, including 2,500 who were permanently disabled. 19,000 students have left the Gaza Strip altogether.

Reports also indicated that 39,000 male and female students were prevented from taking the General Secondary Certificate Examination (Tawjihi) for the first time since the Nakba of 1948, and 58,000 children were unable to enjoy joining the first grade at the beginning of the school year.

According to the Israeli army's claims, these attacks come under the pretext that they target Palestinian resistance elements present in these schools or who have tunnels in their vicinity. In this context, the spokesman for the government media office in Gaza stated that the Israeli attacks were not limited to killing and displacing students and educational staff, but also included the near-total destruction of educational infrastructure, as 90% of educational institutions in the Strip were partially or completely destroyed, including 70% of UNRWA schools. The office explained that 3,344 educational institutions need restoration and rehabilitation.

Since October 7, 2023, this bloody war has been ongoing and only a few days separate us from a new October 7 and the parties to the conflict have not yet reached an agreement. This means that there will be no return of Gaza’s students and youth to their school desks in the near future. Despite all these difficult circumstances, the people of Gaza are clinging to life. Individual initiatives are emerging from teachers who seek to provide educational and recreational classes for children with the remaining tools, in an attempt to keep the flame of hope burning in their hearts and find a glimmer of knowledge despite the siege, in the hope that tomorrow will bring a better future.